“If she calls again, either with or without
Ida, will you ask her to come up here? I want
to see her.”

“Yes, I’ll tell her. Now, my young
friend, I must really leave you. Business before
pleasure, you know.”

Jack looked about the room for something to read.
He found among other books a small volume, purporting
to contain “The Adventures of Baron Trenck.”

It may be that the reader has never encountered a
copy of this singular book. Baron Trenck was
several times imprisoned for political offenses, and
this book contains an account of the manner in which
he succeeded, after years of labor, in escaping from
his dungeon.

Jack read the book with intense interest and wondered,
looking about the room, if he could not find some
similar plan of escape.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE SECRET STAIRCASE

The prospect certainly was not a bright one.
The door was fast locked. Escape from the windows
seemed impracticable. This apparently exhausted
the avenues of escape that were open to the dissatisfied
prisoner. But accidentally Jack made an important
discovery.

There was a full-length portrait in the room.
Jack chanced to rest his hand against it, when he
must unconsciously have touched some secret spring,
for a secret door opened, dividing the picture in two
parts, and, to our hero’s unbounded astonishment,
he saw before him a small spiral staircase leading
down into the darkness.

“This is a queer old house!” thought Jack.
“I wonder where those stairs go to. I’ve
a great mind to explore.”

There was not much chance of detection, he reflected,
as it would be three hours before his next meal would
be brought him. He left the door open, therefore,
and began slowly and cautiously to go down the staircase.
It seemed a long one, longer than was necessary to
connect two floors. Boldly Jack kept on till
he reached the bottom.

“Where am I?” thought our hero. “I
must be down as low as the cellar.”

While this thought passed through his mind, voices
suddenly struck upon his ear. He had accustomed
himself now to the darkness, and ascertained that
there was a crevice through which he could look in
the direction from which the sounds proceeded.
Applying his eye, he could distinguish a small cellar
apartment, in the middle of which was a printing press,
and work was evidently going on. He could distinguish
three persons. Two were in their shirt sleeves,
bending over an engraver’s bench. Beside
them, and apparently superintending their work, was
the old man whom Jack knew as Dr. Robinson.